Eight
Steps
to Becoming Dictator

(Rigged
German Election Leads To Psychopath Nazi Fuhrer)

Summary

After he became
Chancellor in January 1933, Hitler transformed his democratic
position into dictatorial power. Calling an
election - and taking advantage of the Reichstag fire - he got
the Reichstag to pass the Enabling Act. Then,
using the power this gave him to make his own laws, he set up
the Gestapo, banned Trade Unions and opposition parties and
(on the Night of the Long Knives, July 1934) removed even the
opposition within the Nazi Party.

1Reichstag
Fire
- 27 Feb 1933

The Reichstag (the German Parliament) burned
down. A Dutch Communist named van der Lubbe was caught
red-handed with matches and fire-lighting
materials. Hitler used it as an excuse to
arrest many of his Communist opponents, and as a major
platform in his election campaign of March 1933.
The fire was so convenient that many people at the time
claimed that the Nazis had burned it down, and then just blamed the
Communists. Modern historians, however, tend to
believe that van der Lubbe did cause the fire, and that Hitler
just took advantage of it.

2General
Election - 5 March 1933

Hitler held a general election, appealing to the German
people to give him a clear mandate. Only 44% of the people
voted Nazi, which did not give him a majority in the Reichstag, so Hitler
arrested the 81 Communist deputies (which did give him a majority).

4Local government
- 26 April 1933

The Nazis took over local government and the
police. The Nazis started to replace anti-Nazi teachers and
University professors. Hitler set up the Gestapo (the secret
police) and encouraged Germans to report opponents and
'grumblers'. Tens of thousands of Jews, Communists,
Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses, gypsies, homosexuals, alcoholics and
prostitutes were arrested and sent to concentration camps for 'crimes' as
small as writing anti-Nazi graffiti, possessing a banned book, or saying
that business was bad.

5Trade
Unions banned - 2 May 1933

The Trade Unions offices were closed, their money
confiscated, and their leaders put in prison. In their place,
Hitler put the German Labour Front which reduced workers' pay
and took away
the right to strike.

6Political Parties
banned - 14 July 1933

The Law against the Formation of Parties declared the
Nazi Party the only political party in
Germany. All other parties were banned, and their leaders were
put in prison.

7
Night
of the Long Knives - 30 June 1934

The SA were the thugs who Hitler had used to help him
come to power. They had defended his meetings, and attacked
opponents. By 1934 there were more than a million of them.

Historians have often wondered why
Hitler turned on the SA. But Hitler was in power in 1934, and there was no opposition
left - the SA were an embarrassment, not an
advantage. Also, Rohm, the leader of the SA, was
talking about a Socialist revolution and about taking over the
army. On the night of 30 June 1934 - codeword
'Hummingbird - Hitler ordered the SS to kill more than 400 SA men.

Source A

This
David Low cartoon
from 3 July 1934 shows Hitler (with a smoking gun) and Goering (shown as
Thor, the God of War) glowering at - not the traditional Nazi
salute - but terrified SA men with their hands up.
Some SA men already lie dead on the ground. The
caption reads: 'They salute with both hands
now'.

Low
was fiercely anti-Nazi, and portrays Hitler as a brazen
murderer keeping his men in check by naked fear.

Goebbels
is shown as Hitler's poodle.

8Führer
- 19 August 1934

When Hindenburg died, Hitler took over the office of
President and leader of the army (the soldiers had to swear to die for
Adolf Hitler personally). Hitler called himself 'Fuhrer'.